Energy supply security: Australia

Overview

• In 2012, oil and gas in Australia accounted for 59% of total primary energy supply.
• Domestic natural gas production more than satisfies the country’s demand and will do for the foreseeable future.
• Australia does not impose minimum stock holding requirements on oil companies and there are no public stocks.
• Emergency policy relies on the domestic market to respond to supply short falls in the first instance.
• In a declared state of emergency, the government does have legislative power to control the storage, transfer, sale and production of liquid fuels.

Oil

• Most crude oils are of a high quality, light and sweet grade.
• Australia produces NGLs in the form of naturally occurring LPG.
• Crude oil and condensate production peaked in 2000 at 687 000 bpd.
• To 2050, NGL and crude oil production is projected to decrease at an average rate of 3.8% /y.
• To 2050, consumption of petroleum products is expected to grow at an average rate of 1.1% /y.
• In 2012, oil demand averaged 1.126 million bpd.
• In 2010, diesel surpassed gasoline as the largest single component of the country’s total oil demand.
• In 2012, net oil imports averaged 646 000 bpd.
• There are six refineries in Australia with a total crude distillation capacity of 680 000 bpd.
• All oil storage capacity is held commercially within the supply chain.
• The Minister for Industry is responsible for coordinating emergency response in the event of an oil supply disruption.
• Australia held approximately 39 million bbls of oil stock at the end of April 2013.
• The potential for reducing oil use through fuel switching in heat and power plants is limited.

Gas

• In 2012, total natural gas production was 53.9 billion m³.
• By 2018, total production is expected to exceed 140 billion m³.
• In 2012, domestic gas consumption totalled approximately 48.7 billion m³.
• By 2018, natural gas demand is expected to hit 55 billion m³.
• Australia is a net exporter of natural gas and all exports are sent as LNG.
• There are 150 gas companies active in Australia.
• There are three LNG terminals currently in operation in the country.
• Australia has four underground natural gas storage facilities operating and one LNG peak shaving plant.
• There are no strategic stocks of natural gas in Australia.
• There are no policies to promote fuel switching away from natural gas in an emergency.

Adapted by Claira Lloyd